Essayists announced for 2014 National Convention

Rev. Kurt Reinhardt and Deacon Jennifer Shack.

VANCOUVER – Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) has announced the names of the essayists for 2014’s national convention in Vancouver. Rev. Kurt Reinhardt (Trinity Evangelical Lutheran in Kurtzville, Ontario) and Deacon Jennifer Shack (Concordia University College of Alberta – CUCA) will present on the topics of prayer and the diaconate respectively.

Rev. Reinhardt is in his fifteenth year of serving the people of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran near Kurtzville, Ontario, which he has served since graduating from Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary (St. Catharines, Ontario). He has served as plenary speaker for Corpus Christi conferences in Sweden and Finland, speaking on the Holy Spirit and Life in Christ. His presentation is entitled “Come to Him Who Answers Prayer, ‘As Dear Children Ask Their Dear Father.’”

“Prayer is often a misunderstood aspect of the Christian life,” Rev. Reinhardt explains. “Many approach it from the viewpoint of the demands of the Law rather than the gifting of the Gospel. In his Small Catechism explanation of the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther firmly roots our understanding of this key element of our Christian lives in the grace of the Gospel. Touching on the baptismal origins of the Christian’s prayer life, he describes our approach to God in prayer with the words “as dear children ask their dear Father.”  This insightful Lutheran truth will provide the basis for our reflections on Christian prayer. Beginning with the family foundations of this precious gift of the Christian life, we will ponder its purpose and use in the lives of God’s children.”

Deacon Shack is pursuing a Ph.D. in biblical studies at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, having completed her M.A. at CUCA in 2011. She continues to teach part-time at CUCA from a distance, and was appointed Coordinator of Applied Religion (Church Work) at the college in August 2013. Deacon Shack’s presentation is entitled “The History and Biblical Foundation of the Diaconate in LCC.”

“The official diaconate of Lutheran Church Canada was established in 1999,” Deacon Shack explains. “My presentation will briefly review the reasons for the establishment of this office and the process by which it was done. It will also discuss the idea of ‘diaconate’ in the New Testament and show how the office of diaconate in Lutheran Church–Canada is in keeping with the spirit of the idea of diaconate in the New Testament. Finally, this presentation will also highlight the important contributions the diaconate has made to our church body in the last twenty-five years and the kinds of contributions we can expect in the future.”

For more information on the essayists and their topics, download this pdf here.

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